Motivating Employees – What Makes Them Tick

Employee motivation is one of the central issues ruling the Human Resource Management field. Over the years, psychologists as well as management gurus have explored numerous motivational theories, conducting empirical studies to test the feasibility of these theories in real-world scenarios. Some theories have been successfully applied in several organizations, while others just bumped.

Nonetheless, the gallant managers, continue to struggle, trying to figure out what will make their teams ‘tick’. They do this because they know that motivation is the single most important element that leads to performance improvement, which in turn leads to improved ROI, i.e. return on investment and elevated customer satisfaction – just the ingredients required, to roll in the dough!

To motivate a diversified workforce, a capable manager takes into account basic factors such as; ability, ambition level, education, age and gender. But this in not enough; human nature is still a mystery at best; each person is unique, demonstrating divergent reactions to even the most generalized circumstances.

This difference in behaviour towards the same thing or situation makes it essential to understand how people think, feel and react, so they can be motivated accordingly. For example, more time off would act as a motivator for one employee, while it would take a cash bonus to motivate another employee, for doing the same job. Hence, it is very important for the manager to know what it takes to make each member of his team ‘tick’.

Popular motivational theories – that have proved to be useful tools for the majority of managers – include: Alderfer’s ERG Theory, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory and Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. These motivational theories are used by organizations and managers to perk up: individual performance, efficiency, collaboration and sustained retention. On the whole, the aim of every theory is identical; nevertheless, each theory reflects on distinct perspectives of the subject.

Considering, the present economic conditions that have shaken up people’s faith in the system, employee motivation is still more important. Motivated employees can make an organization successful, whereas, employees lacking motivation can break an organization. This has been demonstrated in numerous organizations.

In industries where daily innovation and fresh ideas are the stock in trade, it is especially evident that well motivated employees make a huge difference. The right incentives can get the creative juices flowing like nothing else could. This in turn leads to creative and top-notch performance that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations, naturally leading to huge profits for the company.

So better find out what makes your workers tick!

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